Week 5 Review (11/2/2008): Project status updates and Web technical assessments

In week 5, teams presented their web design briefs and project status updates. There was a wide range of detail provided, which is great since you are all obviously thinking hard about your projects. Teams should take time to update their briefs (project_brief_tmpl.doc) based on the feedback you received. You should also complete the technical assessment assignment for your projects as this will help you review the different features that you have proposed, and give you a framework in which to prioritize and focus what features and deliverables you will actually propose. I will allow some time to review these in class. Your technical assessment tables should include the following information (as in figure 9.9 and 9.10 though you can make one table rather than two),

• Feature number (use a grouping system if needed)
• Title
  
• Description
• Owner/Main stakeholder (the primary person/user who will benefit/use this feature)
  
• Business need addressed by this feature
• Priority score
• Risk score
• Ranking score (Priority + Risk)
  

In week 5's class, I presented on audience assessment, and in next week's class you will be working on the personas and scenarios (more information on this in Chapter 3, p49-59, and the User Surveys article). This week's reading assignment is Chapter 4 (Structure, p. 88-116) & Chapter 5 (Visual, p. 120-140) which will prepare you for the website design assessment step.

Have a good week,
Richard.